IV AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY 157 



has dropped into the abyss when it is quite 

 obviously alive and kicking at the surface ; he 

 must not assimilate a man like Professor Dana to 

 the components of an " ignorant mob " ; he must 

 not say that things are beginning to be known 

 which are not known at all ; he must not say that 

 " slow and sulky acquiescence " has been given 

 to that which cannot yet boast of general acquies- 

 cence of any kind ; he must not suggest that a 

 view which has been publicly advocated by the 

 Director of the Geological Survey and no less 

 publicly discussed by many other authoritative 

 writers has been intentionally and systematically 

 ignored ; he must not ascribe ill motives for a 

 course of action which is the only proper one ; 

 and finally, if any one but myself were interested, 

 I should say that he had better not waste his time 

 in raking up the errors of those whose lives have 

 been occupied, not in talking about science, but 

 in toiling, sometimes with success and sometimes 

 with failure, to get some real work done. 



The most considerable difference I note among 

 men is not in their readiness to fall into error, but 

 in their readiness to acknowledge these inevitable 

 lapses. The Duke of Argyll has now a splendid 

 opportunity for proving to the world in which of 

 these categories it is hereafter to rank him. 



DEAR PROFESSOR HUXLEY, A short time 

 before Mr. Darwin's death, I had a conversation 



